Marketers around the world are broadly pessimistic about their budget levels, with this trend being especially pronounced in Asia Pacific and Europe, a report has revealed.

Warc's latest Global Marketing Index (GMI), drawing on data from a panel of 1,225 executives, found that the monthly reading covering expectations for marketing budgets hit 47.2 points in December.

This came in ahead of the 46 points recorded on the same metric in November, but still fell below the 50 point benchmark indicating neutral sentiment, with higher ratings reflecting a positive outlook.

Within the overall total, the Americas logged the most robust regional returns on 50.2 points, which was essentially flat from November and slipped behind the 53.8 points posted in October.

Asia Pacific registered 48 points, an improvement from 46.8 points in the previous research round. Perceptions remained gloomy in Europe on 44.8 points, but did rise from 42.6 points in November.

Breaking out the findings for various media, digital, excluding mobile, yielded 74.8 points, meaning greater resources are being allocated to this channel. Mobile also secured 68.7 points here.

All other media except radio enhanced their position from November. Television, on 47.6 points, was in negative territory but delivered its strongest figures for seven months.

Upon assessing global trading conditions, the worldwide index stood at 57.1 points, up from 53.4 points in November, and the best performance on this measure since May 2012.

This was largely attributable to the Americas, on 61.1 points, an amount coming in at 55.6 points for Asia Pacific and 54.1 points for Europe.

Elsewhere, the index for staffing levels proved positive on 53 points. This constituted a gain from 51.1 points in November, although it lagged the long term average of 56 points or more.

In all, the headline GMI – which comprises scores from each of these areas – reached 52.5 points in December, versus 50.1 points in November.

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